General Motors India would invest at least $50 million at its Halol plant (Gujarat) to produce light commercial vehicles (LCVs) with its joint venture partner Hong Kong-based Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation. The LCVs are slated to hit the Indian roads by 2011.
GM India president & managing director Karl Slym told FE that the company would make the investments to upgrade existing facilities at Halol for producing the new range of products.
?We have to modify the Halol plant to be able to make LCVs. We have to then purchase all the suitable equipment. It would be a sizeable investment,?Slym said.
He added, ?The ball park figure is around $50 million. Normally that?s the amount you have to invest to produce a new product.?
Slym had earlier said the company would be making investments at its Halol plant for producing LCVs but had refrained from disclosing any investment details. Apart from LCVs, the JV firm would roll out passenger cars for the Indian market by 2012. The cars would be produced at its Talegaon plant near Pune.
At the time of announcement of the 50:50 joint venture between GM and SAIC the company was expected to invest $350 million (around Rs 1,620 crore) in the India initiative. Products from this joint venture would be exported as well.
Slym said, “We have committed already more than $1 billion for the Indian markets. If you talk about future investments then we are going to bring commercial vehicles into the country that would require additional investments and it would mean higher volumes and we would have to expand our plans.”
Though the passenger cars manufactured by GM India with SAIC are expected to be rolled out under the brand name of Chevrolet, the JV firm is yet to decide on the name for its LCVs.
Slym said that the branding of the LCV would be under a new name entirely. “We still want it (brand) to be linked to Chevrolet because its one of the fastest growing nameplates in the country. However it would be under a new name,?he said.